Snow sports are enjoyed by millions of user's throughout the world. The term snow sports is a broad term encompassing many types of sports enjoyed on snow. For example, the term snow sports may be used to reference skiing, snowboarding, monoboarding, snowshoeing, sledding, etc.
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. A skier wears a boot that is coupleable with a binding attached to the ski. Each of the user's feet are attached to a separate ski. When traveling over snow, the skier may lose his or her balance. Because the skier's feet are independently coupled to separate skis, the skier can reposition their foot to regain their balance. Skier's typically also use ski poles to assist in maintaining their balance and as a pivot point about which to make a turn.
Ski poles are designed to be positioned at a single point and are typically relatively sharp to engage snow or ice. Once a tip of the ski pole is positioned in ice or snow, the user must lift the ski pole from the snow to get ready for the next pole plant. Therefore, as a user descends a slope, the user's ski poles are intermittently engaged with the snow.
The relatively sharp nature of a tip of a ski pole makes them unsatisfactory as a gliding device used in gliding over snow, particularly powder snow. Accordingly, as a user descends a slope, the user does not continuously maintain contact between the snow and the ski pole. When the user carves a turn, the only thing typically keeping the user from falling over is the user's momentum. If the user begins to fall during a turn the user may plant a ski pole to stop the fall provided they have quick enough reflexes.
With snowboarding and monoboarding, the user's feet are coupled to a single board. Thus, when the user loses his or her balance, the user cannot reposition their feet to regain their balance. The difference between monoboarding and snowboarding is the direction with which the user's body is positioned with respect to the board. In monoboarding, the user stands with his or her feet approximately parallel to a longitudinal axis of the monoboard. In snowboarding, the user stands with his or her feet approximately transverse to a longitudinal axis of the snowboard.
With monoboarding, because the user stands with his or her feet approximately parallel to a longitudinal axis of the monoboard, the user's arms are typically positioned on either side of the monoboard. This allows a monoboarder to use a conventional pair of ski poles in a manner substantially similar to the way a skier uses a pair of ski poles. However, as discussed above, ski poles have several shortcomings when used in descending a slope.
With snowboarding, much, if not all, of the control of the board is done through the user's lower body. The user's upper body is typically not used in snowboarding. Because the user's feet are coupled to a single snowboard, if the user loses his or her balance, the user has no way of regaining their balance by repositioning their feet.
A snowboarder user stands transeverse with respect to the longitudinal axis of the snowboard. Therefore, the user's arms are typically positioned over the snowboard. This makes using a conventional ski pole awkward and difficult with a snowboard.
In descending a slope, a snowboarder points the longitudinal axis of the snowboard down the slope. The snowboarder typically controls their speed by rotating the longitudinal axis in one direction or the other and engaging an uphill edge of the snowboard with the snow.
On gradual slopes, or areas which are flat or uphill, a snowboarder may lose their momentum and stop. Because the snowboarder's feet are coupled to a single snowboard, the user cannot walk or use their legs to traverse the snow. Additionally because conventional ski poles are difficult or awkward to use with a snowboard, the snowboarder typically does not have a way to engage their upper body to propel themselves across the snow. Often, the only way to get across a flat or uphill slope is to remove the snowboard and walk.